{"id":3496,"date":"2026-06-25T23:16:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:16:34","slug":"louisiana-pastor-arrested-on-battery-charge-says-he-was-protecting-family-youre-not-going-to-rape-my-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/?p=3496","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana pastor arrested on battery charge says he was protecting family: \u2018You\u2019re not going to rape my wife\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First<\/a>) \u2014 Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, defended his actions after he was arrested on a battery charge, asserting that he was protecting his family.
According to the affidavit, Spell, 48, on Tuesday, walked across Hooper Road and allegedly beat the victim after the victim had screamed \u201cF*** You\u201d from across the street from the church. In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Spell recalled details of the incident, claiming that the person threatened to rape and kill his wife and grandchildren.
\u201cThis has gone on for years now. Behind me are several witnesses who can attest to what was said; they have video, they have made numerous complaints to the police and sheriff\u2019s department,\u201d Spell said.\u00a0
He claimed that the people who attend his church have been stalked and intimidated by the people across the street. \u201cAs a shepherd, I have not allowed the sheep to attack the wolves for what was said to them,\u201d Spell said.
His attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink, said there was possibly a failure in law enforcement or a \u201cgap\u201d in the law regarding the ongoing problem he referred to as \u201cdomestic terrorism.\u201d \u201cThey don\u2019t like the church; they made that clear,\u201d he said.\u00a0
Central Police Department Police Chief Roger Corcoran responded to Spell\u2019s claims of making numerous complaints to authorities.\u00a0

\u201cAllegations that the Central Police Department has failed to investigate complaints lodged by Pastor or Mrs. Spell are untrue. Our records reflect only five incidents involving Pastor or Mrs. Spell in the past four years, and only one of those involved a complaint against their neighbors. All calls to our department are recorded, and all persons who visit our department to make in-person complaints are captured on video. If\u00a0dates and times of complaints were\u00a0allegedly\u00a0made\u00a0are provided to me, I will order an audit of our systems to investigate\u00a0any claim of a failure to investigate,\u201d said Corcoran.\u00a0
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to rape my wife. I can\u2019t allow you to do that. You\u2019re not going to rape my grandchildren, and me live with the cloud over my head that if I leave, my children and wife are unprotected. I have a duty and an obligation to do what I did,\u201d Spell said.\u00a0
Spell first publicly addressed the arrest when he spoke to the congregation<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday night, telling them, \u201cI laid hands on the sick. I don\u2019t know how much recovery they\u2019re going to have, but I laid hands on the sick.\u201d
Speaking more of his time in jail, he said the inmates were kind, courteous and respectful. \u201cThe guards were busy watching a rerun of the altercation,\u201d he said, adding that he hadn\u2019t seen the footage at that time.

He was released on a $25,000 bond after being booked into the parish prison on a second-degree battery charge.\u00a0
Arrest documents stated that the victim sustained some injuries, including a possible broken orbital bone around his right eye.\u00a0
\"\"Tony Spell, a Central pastor, faces a second-degree battery charge. (EBRSO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) \u2014 Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, defended his actions after he was arrested on a battery charge, asserting… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3498,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions\/3498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerimatonews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}